When Valerie Rachwal was diagnosed with breast cancer, she just wanted to talk.She didn’t know anyone who’d been through cancer. Now that she has a clean bill of health, she wants to make it easier for others diagnosed with the disease, so she’s starting a support group.

“When you’ve experienced cancer there’s an empathy that you have for others that people just don’t get if they haven’t lived that journey,” Rachwal said.

“There’s always a lot of questions … To be able to communicate with somebody who understands how you’re feeling, I thought would be a really nice thing for me to be able to experience.”